"Frustrated but not bored" certainly matches how I was feeling during the exploration phase of that session. But I think it's reasonable for D&D rules, and on-the-fly DM decisions, to sometimes produce those emotions in the players. We committed ourselves, at least temporarily, to doggedly attempting something that we knew would be difficult given our characters' current capabilities. Alexis can't make us tramp up and down Hungarian hillsides all day in real life, but the game has been tuned so that attempting that action during play will make us feel a lot like how we'd feel in real life after a day of hard tramping with nothing (yet) gained. I appreciate that.